JD-U projects Nitish Kumar as NDA`s PM candidate?

New Delhi: Even as the BJP and JD-U battle it out over the issue of NDA`s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, a poster put up outside the venue of JD-U`s two-day national executive meet here has pitted Nitish Kumar against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Notwithstanding the ongoing battle between the BJP and the JD-U over naming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as PM candidate, the massive poster talks about the `2nd Mahabharata War 2014` and shows two chariots with `Arjun` Nitish and `Sarathi` Sharad Yadav pitted against `Arjun` Manmohan Singh and `Sarathi` Sonia Gandhi.

No BJP leader has been featured on the poster.

The symbolic poster is clearly meant to send out a clear message - that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a serious NDA candidate to take on PM Manmohan Singh in next year`s General Elections.

While asking the BJP to clarify whether Modi would be made the PM candidate, the JD-U has refrained from pitching for Nitish as the NDA choice. It has only said that Modi`s candidature could force the party to quit the main opposition alliance.

The JD-U, which has 20 Lok Sabha MPs, is the second largest member of the NDA coalition after the BJP. Also, the two parties are ruling in alliance in Bihar.